Have you purchased a new car lately? You can find out everything you need to know about any make or model without ever stepping foot on the lot. All data on features, colors, and accessories are available from the manufacturers' sites, and detailed pricing information is readily accessible from sites like Edmunds.com.
You can also find out about particular dealers. Better yet, that information comes from actual buyers. These folks will tell you about their entire experience buying and servicing their new cars. A simple Google search led me to these candid reviews of my local VW dealer on Yelp!
Some they should be proud of...
I went into the dealer with all these worries, and the sales guy, John, was quick to show me that there nothing to worry about there. No sales pressure whatsoever. No haggling, no tricks, and they were very nice and patient through the whole process. Brandon V.
Others not so much...
Super rip off and no customer care - this place charged me 2 hours of labor for a 0.5 hour job, and were unapologetic when I argued about it.... I talked to the service manager and he defended the 2 hours to bolt two pieces of metal to the frame. This place is worthless. I'd never go back. Ken H.
Ouch!
SaaS providers should let their customers talk to prospects, too
As you might expect, most of the customer opinions you'll find online relate to B-to-C businesses. But there's an opportunity for companies selling to enterprises to jump in here, too. In fact, for SaaS companies it might make a lot of sense.
For one, SaaS providers should be conscientiously attending to the needs of their existing customers as a on-going imperative. Renewing existing customers when their subscriptions expire is usually critical to the success of the business. If they're doing their job properly, SaaS providers should have a large pool of satisfied and well-informed customers willing to express positive opinions.
Relying on happy existing customers to help sell new customers should also help SaaS companies with another business requirement: cutting the cost of customer acquisition.
Let your prospects connect directly to existing customers. Don't ask your Sales folks to carry the entire burden of closing a prospect. SaaS providers should open their customer forums to anyone, and actively encourage their prospects to log in and ask questions. Besides the usual link to Sales - "Contact us for more information", why not add "Contact our customers for more information," and provide a direct link to the Customer Forum?
I know that can be a scary notion, and you shouldn't expect customers to shill for you. But they will tell a credible story. And if, on balance, they report that their vendor (that's you) has treated them fairly and delivered good value, you've got nothing to fear.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Proximity to market
I've heard of CEOs delivering pizzas and Jolt Cola to software developers. I know about companies that have sent flowers to developers' families, with apologies for keeping them away from home on nights and weekends. I've even seen a company treat the entire development team to a week-long Caribbean resort vacation, all-expenses-paid.
Why this largess? Believe me, it's a lot more than just an outpouring of TLC to the folks who design, write and test code.
No, it's all about time. Specifically, time-to-market. Companies see value in prodding, cajoling and rewarding development teams for shipping product and hitting a deadline. The thinking goes that faster-to-market equates to competitive advantage.
I'm not convinced that time-to-market, and specifically first-to-market, always conveys much advantage over the long term. There are plenty of examples where the second or third vendor into a market eventually walks off with the lion's share. Think Microsoft in desktop applications or Google in search.
Proximity-to-market more important that time-to-market
Time-to-market is probably even less important for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. What matters more for them is proximity-to-market.
"Proximity-to-market" refers to the ability of SaaS providers to stay close to customers so as to be in a position to accurately read and analyze customer needs and to respond quickly.
The SaaS model presents providers with at least two significant proximity-to-market advantages:
1. The ability to observe customer behavior closely
A hosted SaaS solution provides the vendor an opportunity to know precisely how the customer uses it. The provider can directly observe, for example which features are being used, which are neglected, and which cause customers to review the "support" FAQs? On-premise solution vendors can try to accumulate this same information by observing behavior or through customer surveys, but it's more difficult and less accurate.
2. The ability to respond quickly
SaaS providers that follow agile development methodologies typically have the ability to respond rapidly to signals from customers. They can develop new features or fix existing ones. Moreover, they have an effective mechanism to deliver these enhancements quickly and without significant disruptions. SaaS vendors typically don't face the long development cycles and upgrade issues that confront on-premise vendors.
SaaS providers should leverage these proximity-to-market advantages. Stay in touch with customers through moderated forums or social media networks, analyze customer support requests, track usage patterns, and use whatever other means you have to observe customer behavior and sentiment. Analyze and prioritize the information, and feed it to the development team. It goes well with pizza.
Why this largess? Believe me, it's a lot more than just an outpouring of TLC to the folks who design, write and test code.
No, it's all about time. Specifically, time-to-market. Companies see value in prodding, cajoling and rewarding development teams for shipping product and hitting a deadline. The thinking goes that faster-to-market equates to competitive advantage.
I'm not convinced that time-to-market, and specifically first-to-market, always conveys much advantage over the long term. There are plenty of examples where the second or third vendor into a market eventually walks off with the lion's share. Think Microsoft in desktop applications or Google in search.
Proximity-to-market more important that time-to-market
Time-to-market is probably even less important for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. What matters more for them is proximity-to-market.
"Proximity-to-market" refers to the ability of SaaS providers to stay close to customers so as to be in a position to accurately read and analyze customer needs and to respond quickly.
The SaaS model presents providers with at least two significant proximity-to-market advantages:
1. The ability to observe customer behavior closely
A hosted SaaS solution provides the vendor an opportunity to know precisely how the customer uses it. The provider can directly observe, for example which features are being used, which are neglected, and which cause customers to review the "support" FAQs? On-premise solution vendors can try to accumulate this same information by observing behavior or through customer surveys, but it's more difficult and less accurate.
2. The ability to respond quickly
SaaS providers that follow agile development methodologies typically have the ability to respond rapidly to signals from customers. They can develop new features or fix existing ones. Moreover, they have an effective mechanism to deliver these enhancements quickly and without significant disruptions. SaaS vendors typically don't face the long development cycles and upgrade issues that confront on-premise vendors.
SaaS providers should leverage these proximity-to-market advantages. Stay in touch with customers through moderated forums or social media networks, analyze customer support requests, track usage patterns, and use whatever other means you have to observe customer behavior and sentiment. Analyze and prioritize the information, and feed it to the development team. It goes well with pizza.
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